Performing Arts Come Alive in Manukau

Performing Arts Come Alive in Manukau

Manukau Festival of Arts 10
October 15th – October 31st 2010

With an incredibly diverse selection of events to fill up your diary in the month of October, this year’s Manukau Festival of Arts celebrates theatre, dance, comedy and everything in between in the live genre of Performing Arts.

The smash hit of last year’s festival, Kila Kokonut Krew’s variety show, is back for Strictly Brown 2, with a bevy of celebrity guests, music from Tony T and his backing band Empty Rooms and lots of giveaways. The highly successful troupe, freshly returned from an Australian tour, have been entertaining audiences for years with theatre that never fails to entertain.

The amazing dance collective Atamira bring their latest work, TAONGA: dust, water, wind to the Genesis Energy Theatre, honouring the life of Rona Williamson – a kuia of Ngai Tahu whanui. Set in the small seaside town of Kaka Point, audiences are submerged into a magical landscape where bodies inhabit a world of seaweed and stone.

Pani and Pani (comedy divas Goretti Chadwick and Anapela Polataivao) team up with Auckland Theatre Company for a local retelling of Dario Fo’s We Can’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! As Rita and Nia raid a local supermarket with the other mothers, their most difficult task is where to hide the booty from their husbands… and the community constable bent on bringing them down. Luckily they have some help – in the form of Saint Ulalala, the goddess of the Pacific!

Another adaption at the festival comes from A MigHT-I Theatre Production, in the form of 12 Angry Men (A Hindi Adaption) of Reginald Rose’s 1954 play. A guilty verdict seems a forgone conclusion, but one member of the jury has the will to probe more deeply into the evidence and the courage to confront the ignorance and prejudice of some of the fellow jurors.

Continuing to generate standing ovations even in its 21st year, Blood Brothers brings a West-End favourite to Manukau. A home-grown classic in the making, James Nokise’s The Minister’s Son, deals with topics relevant to today’s audiences, as he brings to the stage 1980’s multicultural Wellington in this critically acclaimed piece.

Originating in Tokyo, Pecha Kucha Night is a unique, rapid-fire format where a speaker shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds. With such a quick presentation (last six minutes and 40 seconds), audiences get to experience an exhilarating variety of ideas and projects in one easy sitting – which would demonstrate why Pecha Kucha has spread virally across 300 cities.

Playmarket venture to the Metro Theatre to once more provide audiences with a read through of one of the latest productions ready to be unleashed onto the theatre-going public of NZ; Briar Grace Smith’s Nga Pou Wahine.

And of course, what festival would be complete without Billy T award winner Mike Loder’s Southside Comedy, with special guest Mike King. The country’s best 50 comedians storm the stage at the Genesis Theatre at South Auckland’s premiere comedy show, and it’s a chance for young adults to experience NZ comedy – making it the perfect start to the weekend!

Visit www.mfa.org.nz for detailed information regarding this year's festivities

ENDS

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